Commonwealth grabs $1.5B team before LPL deal: Advisor Moves

June 13, 2025 2:31 PM

Angelo Planning Group has left Osaic to join Commonwealth Financial Network just months before its purchase by LPL Financial.

Just because you're about to be bought by a longtime industry rival doesn't mean you stop recruiting.

Commonwealth Financial Network, months before its impending purchase by LPL Financial, has landed a team formerly managing $1.5 billion. Also this week, RBC Wealth goes to UBS again to recruit prominent advisors, and Carson Group buys a big firm in Colorado. Read about it below.

Commonwealth Financial Network

Commonwealth picks up $1.5B team from Osaic

On the cusp of its purchase by LPL Financial, Commonwealth Financial Network has picked up a large wealth management team from Osaic.

Commonwealth, which is set to be bought in the second half of this year by its former independent broker-dealer rival for $2.7 billion, announced this week that it had recruited a 30-member practice named Angelo Planning Group. The team is based in Rochester, New York, and formerly managed $1.5 billion through an affiliation with Osaic, another independent broker-dealer.

Angelo Planning Group is led by Ralph Angelo, founder and managing partner, and numbers 16 advisors. Angelo has nearly 30 years of industry experience and started his career in 1996 with an affiliation with Axa Advisors, according to BrokerCheck. He moved in 2010 to American Portfolios, which was bought by Osaic (then Advisor Group) in 2022.

"Ralph Angelo and his partners have established a highly successful practice by consistently prioritizing their clients," Becca Hajjar, Commonwealth managing principal and chief business development officer, said in a statement. "We are honored they selected Commonwealth to ensure the continued vitality of their model, both currently and as we collaborate with LPL Financial."

RBC goes to UBS again to recruit three advisors with $1.1B combined

RBC Wealth Management continued its run of poaching advisors from UBS, pulling over a trio separately managing $1.1 billion.

Robert Miller is joining RBC in St. Paul, Minnesota; Scott Murray in Boise, Idaho; and Mark Grueninger in Beverly Hills, California. Miller started his career at Piper Jaffray in 2000 and moved to UBS in 2006, according to BrokerCheck. Murray started at UBS in 1997. Grueninger started at PaineWebber in 2001, shortly after it was bought by UBS. He moved to Bank of America in 2003 and Merrill in 2009 before returning to UBS in 2014.

RBC Wealth Management, the U.S. wealth subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, has had a good deal of success recruiting advisors from UBS in recent years. Last week, it announced it brought over an eight-person team formerly overseeing $1.6 billion for UBS in Boise. Earlier this spring, RBC pulled the Austin and Smith Wealth Management Group from UBS. The team, based in Syracuse, New York, had formerly managed roughly $500 million.

The departures come several months after UBS executives predicted that changes in the firm's compensation policies for its Americas unit would most likely lead to higher advisor attrition this year. UBS' Americas headcount fell by 3% year over year to 5,884 in the second quarter.

LPL Financial recruits $330M advisor from Wedbush

San Diego-based LPL Financial is adding to its home-turf presence in California with the recruitment of an advisor formerly with Wedbush Securities.

Jeff Runyan is joining LPL in Beverly Hills. His firm, Runyan Capital, had formerly managed roughly $330 million through an affiliation with Wedbush.

The Runyan Capital team, which also includes Connor Brumfield, Sam Aamot and Jenni Runyan, said they chose LPL for its technology and the opportunity it offered for having greater independence.

Carson Group extends Colorado presence by picking up $570M firm

The RIA aggregator Carson Group is gaining ground in the West with its purchase of an advisory firm in Littleton, Colorado.

Wambolt & Associates brings in $570 million in client assets to Carson Group, which oversees more than $42 billion in assets under management (AUM). Wambolt & Associates was founded in 2010 by Greg Wambolt and specializes in providing investment and tax management to high net worth clients, executives and business owners.

Wambolt said in a statement that joining Carson will allow his firm to offer more expertise while maintaining its close relationships with clients. Investors will continue working with their current advisors while benefiting from Carson's resources, such as centralized planning, institutional investments and advanced tax and estate planning.

Carson Group sold a minority stake in itself for $1 billion in 2021 to the private equity firm Bain Capital. The stake previously belonged to Long Ridge Equity Partners, another private equity firm, which had bought it for $35 million in 2016.

Goldman Sachs alumni set up $2.6B RIA with Dynasty's support

A trio of longtime financial advisors, with backgrounds that include stints at Goldman Sachs, are starting an RIA in Atlanta.

Robert Durham, Zack Cloud and Brian Gately, who previously managed a combined $2.6 billion in client assets, will specialize in working with ultrahigh net worth clients and multifamily office services. They are being supported in their transition, and receiving other assistance, from Dynasty Financial Partners, a financial services network now working with nearly 60 firms and roughly 500 financial advisors.

Durham started his career in 1980 at Merrill Lynch before moving on to roles at Lehman Brothers, Wells Fargo and Stephens. Cloud and Gately joined the industry in 2002 and 2005, respectively, and moved to Goldman Sachs in 2015 from Morgan Stanley.

Cetera pulls from Mariner Wealth for new RIA business unit

Cetera Financial Group has started a new business unit for independent registered advisors, direct-employee advisors and advisors in its "supported independence" category.

The division, called the RIA and Branches Channel, will be led by Jen Hanau, who joins Cetera from the RIA aggregator Mariner Wealth Advisors. At Mariner, Hanau had served as national managing director of independent channels. Before that, she had held roles in advisor recruitment at Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab. In her new position she will oversee sales plans and manage client-facing teams, among other responsibilities.

Cetera's RIA and Branches Channel now works with more than 600 advisors managing roughly $33.5 billion in client assets. It brings together four lines of business:

Avantax Planning Partners: a tax specialist that works with accounting firms to provide wealth management services.
Cetera Investors: a network of over 40 branch offices providing independent advisors with technology and compliance help and more.
Cetera Blueprint: a unit for Cetera advisors who own their own RIAs or are planning to start one.
The Retirement Planning Group: Cetera's fee-only RIA unit.

The new division comes on top of four already existing units at Cetera: for advisors, institutions, large enterprises, and tax and accounting.

Savant Wealth Management appoints chief financial officer

Savant Wealth Management, a prominent fee-only RIA, has named Ahmed Hassanein as its new chief financial officer.

Hassanein has three decades of experience in the financial services industry and was most recently chief financial officer at Signature Estate & Investment Advisors in Los Angeles.

He also held executive roles at Osaic (formerly Advisor Group) and Cetera Financial Group. He has expertise in financial planning and analysis, accounting, taxes, regulatory reporting, compensation and corporate real estate. He also has experience with using mergers and acquisitions and expense management to promote business growth.

Savant Wealth Management had roughly $30.6 billion in assets under management by April 30 and was providing advice on an additional $1.3 billion. It has its headquarters in Rockford, Illinois, and has received private equity backing from the Kelso & Company and Cynosure Management, a family office that's part of the RIA's network of advisory practices.